Nintendo DS Titles Coming To Wii U Virtual Console

At some point in the future, you will be able to play Nintendo DS games on the Wii U.

In order to increase the usefulness of the Wii U GamePad, Nintendo will be bringing Nintendo DS titles to the Wii U Virtual Console in the future, the company announced today, during a financial results briefing.

Nintendo stated they needed to overcome a technical hurdle before this was a possibility.

Feel the Magic XY/ The Rub Rabbits. Can’t wait to hear that soundtrack on proper speakers.

James Beatty

Neat, I hope I can play The World Ends With U on it.
Also, if anyone is thinking “why not 3DS” well, it can already play ever DS game. (and it might get the DS VC support later on)

J_Joestar

i wouldn’t hold my breath on that last part as we don’t even have GBA/SNES games for sale on the 3DS VC.

idrawrobots

I am more interested in getting 3DS on the Wii U than DS on the 3DS.

Duo8

Sadly that would be the worst business decision ever.

idrawrobots

I think right now the Wii U needs all the help it can get, and that certainly would sell Wii Us

D H

Worst decision? Not so sure on that. It worked well enough with the Game Boy Player, I think, and that hit shelves only two years after the introduction of the GBA. Granted, it also hit just a year before the DS, but it’s a similar strategy to what Sony is already doing with the Vita TV, only it simply wouldn’t be a dedicated device like that but a peripheral. Plus, it would give more people a reason to pick up a Wii U, as any kind of 3DS Player should also, I would assume, play standard DS games, give the Wii U library an influx of 1300 or so games, including a library that many potential buyers would already own.

Duo8

Yep. And look at the Vita TV now.
The GBP is an external device (which Nintendo sells at profit, btw) that includes GBA hardware. I don’t remember Wii U having 3DS hardware.

Nintendo isn’t gonna be making any more money off of existing DS software. They probably do not print DS games anymore. Why would they release a player for it when they can integrate it into the Wii U, and make some money off of digital sales instead?

James Beatty

That might eat into 3DS HW profits, but that would be interesting as well.

SMT

I think more people should appreciate the pun you made with “The World Ends With U” for a Wii U version of that game… It’s brilliant!

They should made DS titles digitally available for 3DS as well, it is rather ridiculous that WiiU got access for them while 3DS don’t regardless you can still use physical DS carts on 3DS

greg_67

Still waiting on Nintendo to work getting SNES and GBA games to work on 3DS. GBA we already know is possible due to the ambassador program.

Duo8

SNES games (at least the normal ones) are possible. There’s even a SNES emulator for the GBA back then IIRC.

Brandt Mackay

Yeah, but that emulator was more proof of concept than anything. The problem is emulators have a lot that has to be done, such as converting Snes CPU architecture to ARM, not easy at all.

Duo8

Eh. The DS did SNES good (enough), the 3DS should too.

Brandt Mackay

Even so, if they want it to be better, it still will require a lot of work. Snes on DS was hit and miss.

D H

Pretty sure I remember an interview or something saying that the GBA games were very difficult to get working on the system, and that difficulty is the main reason we aren’t getting more? I think it was linked in one of the SEGA 3D classics interviews, like the Sonic one? Not sure if it was in the article or the comments though…

But I do know that they stated in the same Sonic interview that emulating Mega Drive/Genesis games was very difficult, and they they basically had to build a new version of the system in code form. If that’s the case, I’d imagine the SNES, with its generally higher performance numbers, would be even more difficult to run on the 3DS. I mean, sure, any ol’ phone can do so, but those are, these days, much more similar to computers in how they function and use their resources than the 3DS is.

hazelnut1112

The GBa games were only able to work because it was running off the DS part of the 3DS. Meaning it wasn’t running on the 3DS software.

Tiredman

I think that will be a bit as all the older system games will likely be Wii U only for a while to try and help boost sales.

Aoshi00

Gyakuten 123 Selection should’ve been done this way, if they’re porting the trilogy for the third time (GBA -> DS -> iOS -> 3DS), should be to Wii U on the Gamepad and big screen..

Paul Rodriguez

Well this is cool and unexpected news.

SBKJAZZ

Why not release a “Super Game Boy” or “Game Boy Player” type accessory, instead, Nintendo? No need to nickel and dime us…

idrawrobots

I have been waiting for that , but perhaps this will give more opportunity for people to play games they haven’t played yet.

James Beatty

A super DS player would likely be around 50-80 bucks and wouldn’t sell more software/make as much money I’d think

Kamakuma

Playing my megaman battle network games on the big screen… one day…

Fox

They still don’t have any GCN or N64 games on the VC, and hardly any SNES games. Especially in North America. If you’re looking for a reason why Nintendo is losing so much money, that’s certainly one of the big ones.

D H

I gotta say, factual or not, I hate viewpoints like this one. To me, it seems horribly pointless to base a decision on whether or not to buy a new system on if an old game is available for it. There are plenty of (admittiedly, mostly all Nintendo-developed) great and fun games for the Wii U, they simply aren’t what the big spenders want. Instead of super-duper-ultra-hyper-mega-realistic graphics and shooters, they are more stylized, platforming games. But really, they are worth playing, and can’t be any “more-of-the-same” than everything else on the market.

But instead of trying these games out and seeing if they are enjoyable or not, people aren’t buying Wii Us because they can’t play A Link to the Past or Ocarina of Time or something else 8+ years old on it? Like there isn’t already plenty of other places to play these? Doesn’t that just seem… backwards to anyone else?

That’s pretty cool. I would hope for an option to play the top screen on the TV and the bottom screen as the touch screen. But I doubt that would happen. Would be pretty cool to play Pokemon B/W on the big screen.

Andy Dao

Hey, cool update Nintendo, now where are the other 100’s of games that need to hit VC?

Tyler Harwood Simpson

This is kinda cool. They should allow this on the 3DS as well.

Heisst

Oh wow, the VC might actually be worthwhile for once.

AweOfShe

Since Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2 has no signs of a “Second Opinion” remake, I could make do with this, I guess. :l

AuraGuyChris

Good. Now we can see Angie dissing us for making a bad move on the big screen.

Spirit Macardi

This is cool, but I’d be more for a successor to the Super Gameboy and the Gameboy Player.

I mean, the DS isn’t that old of a system and the 3DS is fully backwards compatible with it, so it’s not like other older systems where nothing currently on the market can run its software.

Granted this is neat, but I’m still waiting for more retro consoles to show up on the Wii U VC like the Genesis and the N64.

Yvonne Tsang

This is pretty fucking cool. The DS has a MASSIVE library and I’d love to be able to play the games again. Would not mind paying for them either. TWEWY, DQ, Pokemon… Definitely excited.

GH56734

How about a port of Navi Trackers or Four Sword Adventures, Nintendo?
That would be a nice and cheap software showcasing what interaction between console and tablet really is, don’t you think?

Can’t wait for the puzzle in Phantom Hourglass where you need to close the DS.

Göran Isacson

This… is pretty darn cool, actually. Granted, they still need someone to port all those games over, and considering their regular porting speed I kiiinda wonder how quickly we’ll be getting all those beloved old games we’d like to try out again…

Duo8

All they have to do is slap the game on an emulator and spend a few days debugging it. It won’t take that long.

Anime10121

Good, hopefully this means TWEWY on the big screen, or Radiant Historia…

More than likely what it means though, is Mario, Zelda, and shovelware :(

Duo8

I doubt shovelware will be released. No one would buy them.

Anime10121

You underestimate the power of shovelware… as it ALWAYS comes, PSone classics has it, PS2 classics has it, and the eShop has it (though at a FAR smaller scale than the PSN)…

brostar

I’d rather have them on the 3DS virtual console. It’s just the space difference between the screens on the 3DS is better than using a tablet.

Guest

While some of the charm will be lost for some puzzles’ workaround.

Can’t wait for Hotel Dusk, Last Window, Trace Memory, etc. to receive more attention with this :)
Maybe a Miiverse CiNG community!

Duo8

I wonder if Nintendo has all the rights to those games. Because if not, they’ll have to ask for permission from a now-bankrupt company.

Guest

Fortunately they own all the assets and the IPs as they commissioned those games, similar to the case to Wonderful 101. So there is a slim chance of revival if they want to get the good-old CiNG back! :)

Max

I’m pretty sure DS and GBA games will reach the 3DS eventually, will probably be exclusive for the WiiU just to push it for a while.

Ric Vazquez

The World Ends With You,oh yeah…

ElAbuelo69

I know it’s DS but…may I start dreaming of SMT IV on a big screen or should I abandon hope?

Bablioteca

if we’re talking on the big tv, they may have just sold me a wii u.

ddh819

the idea is awesome but i just hope they can pump out the ds releases outside of JPN

Tiredman

Super Robot Taisen : OG Saga : Endless Frontier……..this is what I would want the most of my DS collection.

Amine Hsu Nekuchan

Why not DS games on the… 3DS Virtual Console… it should be easy….

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